


Crossed Signals

by Port



Series: Security Glitch [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Team Bonding, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 05:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10269401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Port/pseuds/Port
Summary: Natasha finds another glitch in Stark Tower's security system, and Darcy and Pepper try to help.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DefinitelyNotScott](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefinitelyNotScott/gifts).



> Dear DefinitelyNotScott, I had such fun writing these for you! Hope you enjoyed them and had an excellent Purim! <3
> 
> Thank you, as ever, to the mods, who make this happen year after wonderful year. This exchange is something I always look forward to. ♥

  


Pepper and Darcy were still in the rec room, comparing notes on super-powered fights they had witnessed, when Jarvis cut in smoothly. “Pardon me, Ms. Potts, but there is a situation that needs your attention.”

Pepper raised her eyebrows. “Jarvis, I didn’t even know you were back from deep security mode. Who let you out?”

“Ms. Romanoff lifted the security status. I’m afraid that is what brings me to interrupt you and Ms. Lewis.”

“The situation that needs my attention? Is Natasha all right?” Half a dozen scenarios flashed through Pepper’s mind as she wondered what exactly would have to have happened for Natasha to require anyone’s help, let alone Pepper’s. Dire injury was at the heart of each one.

Across from her, Darcy chugged the last of her wine and sat up attentively, ready for action. 

“Well….” Jarvis sounded discomfited. “She is in the elevator on this floor.”

“The elevator?” Pepper and Darcy stood up and jogged out to the hall, Darcy only pausing to briefly examine the now clear doorway allowing them to exit. The enhanced steel panic door had vanished back into the ceiling in complete silence while they’d been chatting over wine. When they turned the corner to the elevator bank, both women stopped short. 

“Whoa,” Darcy breathed.

“Jesus,” Pepper muttered. The panic doors had fallen down to block every elevator entrance in the bank. “Jarvis, what is going on?”

Jarvis began to speak, but Natasha’s voice came out from behind the leftmost blocked door. “Pepper? Thank God. You have to find a way to get Jarvis to let me out.”

“Darcy and I are here,” Pepper called, getting close to the door and inspecting the wall of adamantium-laced steel that had for some reason slid into place in front of the elevator’s sliding doors. “We’re trying to figure out what happened.”

“Hi Natasha!” Darcy called. 

“Hello, Darcy,” Natasha said. “Is it nice out there?”

Darcy made a face at Pepper and mouthed the word _sarcastic_ in an over-enunciated way. Pepper smothered a bewildered laugh. 

“If you will allow me to explain,” Jarvis said. “Ms. Romanoff had finished checking on you both after lifting me from deep security mode. She had just entered the elevator when I simultaneously received two signals from Avengers outside of the Tower. The first was Mr. Stark, telling me that his and Thor’s battle with the aggressor at Times Square had finished. He sent a security code meant to lift deep security mode, not knowing that Ms. Romanov had already done so.”

“I don’t like where this is headed,” Pepper said. “What was the second signal you received?”

“That came from Mr. Barton.”

“Goddamnit, Clint,” Natasha growled.

“In his defense, Ms. Romanoff, it was an automatic signal from his Starkphone indicating that he had become engaged in a confrontation. If anyone is to blame for your predicament, it is the programming for deep security mode that causes it to engage the moment any of the Avengers are attacked offsite.”

“Would you like to know what you can do with your programming right now, Jarvis?” Natasha asked.

“Wait,” Darcy cut in. “So you received two signals at once, and that, what? Scrambled things up? Is that why Natasha’s trapped while we’re able to walk around free?”

Pepper had to give Darcy credit for making sense of this craziness so easily. Especially after how far down the bottle they’d gotten in such a short time.

“That is unfortunately the case, Ms. Lewis. The receipt of both codes at once revealed a bug in the programming that I am unable to fix on my own.”

“So you can’t, like, open the doors or move the elevator up or down a floor?” Darcy asked.

“I’m afraid not. Likewise, the panic doors have come down on every other level as well.”

“So she can’t climb out the hatch and rappel up to the next floor,” Darcy said, scratching her chin. 

“Technically, one rappels downward, not up,” Jarvis said, “but you are right that leaving the elevator car itself would be futile.”

“I already tried it anyway,” Natasha said. “Look, since we’re all on the same page now, can someone do a hard reset on Jarvis here and get me out?”

Pepper grimaced. “There’s no hard reset on Jarvis, Natasha. He evolved past that point several years ago.”

“Why is everyone being so pedantic today? Pepper, I don’t care how it happens. I’d like out of this box, please.”

That was entirely reasonable. Pepper reached for her Starkphone. “I’ll get Tony to come here right away.”

Pepper fired off a quick text and got a reply back that Tony and Thor were going to stop and see what was going on with Hawkeye first, reminding Pepper that Clint was indeed in some kind of trouble too. When she brought her attention back to the elevator bank, she found Darcy sitting cross-legged on the floor, facing Natasha’s panic door.

“So you just walked right on by? Dude, we had wine. We could have gotten a girls-only wine party going.”

There was a pause from behind the door, then Natasha admitted, “I didn’t want to disturb you. You sounded like you were having fun.”

“Well, yeah!” Darcy threw her hands up. “You’re allowed to have fun too, you know.”

“She’s right,” Pepper added, sitting down with her back against the doorframe. “We would have loved for you to join us.” Darcy gave her a thumbs up and a crooked smile.

“That… means a lot. Thank you. Have you heard from Tony?”

“He’s on his way as soon as he helps Clint.”

There was a long pause from inside. “You do realize Clint most likely got into a yelling match with a street vendor over sports, right?”

Pepper did realize that. She’d once spent twelve hours locked in the library because of a similar incident. “If he takes too long I’ll make an exception to the property damage rule and use Extremis to cut you out,” Pepper promised.

“Wait, what?” Darcy asked.

“Pepper has the ability to melt steel with her hands,” Natasha said. At Darcy’s dropped jaw, Pepper nodded matter-of-factly. 

“Go get the wine,” she said. “I’ll tell you the whole story.”

\- End -


End file.
